Jason Kidd likely won't coach his first game as head coach of the Brooklyn Nets until his new team's third game of the season. Because, if he pleads guilty to DWI for an incident last offseason in the Hamptons, the league's disciplinary history indicates he'll be suspended for two games.
Kidd is set to appear in court on July 16 for an accident that occurred on the same day a year earlier when he crashed his car into a telephone pole before refusing to take a breathalyzer test. He's expected to plead guilty rather than fighting the case, leading to the suspension speculation.
Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News looked back at similar incidents involving former Kings coach Eric Musselman in 2007, Jason Richardson in 2009 and Dorell Wright in 2010, all of whom received two-game suspensions from the league.
This would put a damper on Kidd's coaching debut. It's most likely that if he's suspended, Lawrence Frank -- once Kidd's own coach, now his assistant -- would take over. Frank was head coach of the Nets from 2004 to 2010 and spent last season as head coach of the Pistons. The Nets might as well get their money's worth, too, considering he's believed to be the highest paid assistant in NBA history.
Technically Kidd has already had his coaching debut, though it came with the Nets summer league team. I use the word "technically" because Kidd might not know all of the rules: the first-year head coach became pretty much the first coach in the history of any Summer League team to pick up a technical foul when he didn't realize he wasn't allowed to leave the coaching box to protest a call.
Perhaps he can use the likely suspension to brush up on more coaching etiquette?
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